How to track a volleyball player's progress.

Why "she looked better" is not a record

A coach's eye is the most valuable thing in a lesson, and it is also the hardest thing for a family to see. After a month of privates, a parent who asks "is it working?" usually gets a reassuring sentence. That sentence may be true, but it gives the family nothing to check and nothing to compare against next month.

A record fixes that. Pick a few measures, run them the same way, and write the number down with a date. The family sees the line move. When it does not move, you have a reason to explain what is going on. Either way the conversation is about the player's own numbers, which is the conversation that keeps families booking.

The 0 to 3 pass rating

Serve receive is the most tracked skill in volleyball, and the scale is well established. Each pass is rated from 0 to 3. A 3 gives the setter every option. A 2 gives the setter two options. A 1 leaves one option, or forces a non-setter to set. A 0 is an ace or an overpass. The Art of Coaching Volleyball describes the same scale as 0 for an ace, 1 for a shank or overpass, 2 for out of system, and 3 for in system.

Serve a fixed number of balls, rate each pass, and average them. Here is an example scoresheet for 20 served balls in a first lesson: seven 3s, eight 2s, three 1s, and two 0s. That adds up to 21 plus 16 plus 3 plus 0, which is 40 points over 20 passes, an average of 2.00. Six weeks later, the same test comes out at nine 3s, eight 2s, two 1s, and one 0: 27 plus 16 plus 2, which is 45 points, an average of 2.25.

What is a good number? Coachingvb.com gives 2.0 or better as a team target and puts strong individual passers around 2.3 to 2.4. A move from 2.00 to 2.25 over six weeks is a real change a family can see, and it comes with a clear next step.

Serving: effectiveness and zones

Serving can be tracked two ways. The first is effectiveness: coachingvb.com scores each serve from 0 to 5, with 0 for an error and 5 for an ace, and the values between set by how well the receiving side passes it. A team target average is 2.0 or better. This works best when you have a live passer on the other side.

The second is accuracy. Each side of the court has six zones: zone 1 is right back, 6 is middle back, 5 is left back, 4 is left front, 3 is middle front, and 2 is right front. Call a zone before each serve and count how many land in it out of 10. In a private lesson, zone accuracy is the easier measure to keep, because it needs no passer.

Setting accuracy

We did not find a published standard for scoring setting the way passing is scored, so this one is coach-defined. A simple version: mark a target zone near the antenna for outside sets, feed 10 passes of mixed quality, and count how many sets land in the target. Keep the feed, the target size, and the number of reps the same each time, and the number becomes comparable across weeks. Write down exactly how you ran it the first time so you, or another coach, can repeat it.

Reach, block touch, and spike touch

Volleyball Canada publishes combine protocols that work well for tracking. Standing reach is measured side-on to a wall, shoes on, one hand up, marking the tip of the middle finger. Block touch starts with feet shoulder-width apart and hands in front of the chest, with no arm swing, jumping with hands together as if blocking. Spike touch uses a full approach to a Vertec or marked wall; the player keeps jumping until three consecutive misses, with 15 to 20 seconds of rest between jumps, and the highest point is recorded.

Volleyball Canada also records serve and attack speed on a radar gun (8 attempts, top 3 recorded) and a 3 meter, 6 meter, 3 meter pro agility shuttle. Most private coaches will not have a radar gun. Reach and touch need only a wall and some chalk.

Touch versus vertical

JVA separates two numbers that families often mix up. Touch is the highest point a player reaches. Vertical is the height gained, which is touch minus standing reach. For a growing junior, standing reach can rise several inches over a season, so a higher touch does not always mean a better jump. Record reach and touch together and compute vertical from them, and you can tell a family which part changed.

JVA also notes that a consistent method matters more than the tool. A Vertec-style device runs about $350 to more than $1,000. A marked wall is fine if you measure the same way every time.

How often to re-test

Testing every lesson eats time and produces noisy numbers. Testing once a season leaves the family with nothing to look at for months. A workable middle is a short benchmark at the start of each private, with a full re-test every four to six lessons. That is a coaching choice, not a rule, and you should pick what fits your schedule.

For teams, run one benchmark in the serve-and-pass block every couple of weeks, with a single number per player. Once or twice a season, write a short review for each player with their numbers in front of you. That paragraph, specific and in your own words, is the part families value most.

Showing results to families

Show each family their own child's numbers and nothing about anyone else's. No team rankings, no percentiles. Progress in a jumping sport is uneven; growth spurts and technical changes can drop a number for a few weeks before it climbs. When a result dips, show the dip with a sentence of context. A chart that never goes down is one families learn to distrust.

Be careful with what the numbers promise. A rising pass average means a player is passing better. It does not predict a team placement or a college roster spot, and you should not present it that way.

There is no universal volleyball rating

A common question is whether volleyball has an equivalent of UTR in tennis. It does not. Indoor volleyball has no individual player rating. USA Volleyball introduced national rankings on November 28, 2023, but they rank junior club teams, updated weekly from sanctioned results, not individual players. Team placement and the division a team plays in are the closest thing to a level signal.

Beach has several parallel systems, none of them universal. Some organizers use letter ratings earned by tournament finishes. The AVP ranks athletes using their best four results across AVP events within an eligible window, and junior players can also qualify for events run by other organizers. A coach's own benchmark record is often the clearest picture of whether a player is improving.

What Upswing records

In Upswing, each player has a player record. Benchmarks you run during a session plan, like a pass average or zone serves out of 10, log straight to it and chart over time. The record also holds your written reviews, attendance, and a match log. Families see their own child's record in the family portal. Upswing includes starter benchmarks for volleyball based on these standard measures, which you can use as they are or edit.

Upswing does not do recruiting, video, or match statistics. It keeps a training record for the player and the family.

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